Any discussion of prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
An assisted point of sale (POS) terminal is a type of POS terminal operated by a cashier to perform a purchase transaction for a customer. Customers present items for purchase and the cashier identifies each item to the POS terminal by moving the items across an optical code scanner which reads an optical code attached to or printed on each item. Optical code scanners on assisted POS terminals are optimized to scan items presented by the operator from the front or operator side of the scanner. The customer stands on the opposite or rear side of the scanner.
A self-service point of sale terminal is a type of POS terminal operated by a customer to perform a purchase transaction for the customer. The customer presents items for purchase and identifies each item to the POS terminal by moving them across an optical code scanner which reads an optical code attached to or printed on each item. The front side of the optical code scanner on a self-service POS terminal is oriented toward the customer.
Large retail stores typically use both assisted and self-service POS terminals to perform purchase transactions. During peak customer checkout periods, there are usually not enough cashiers available to operate all the assisted POS terminals. Therefore, a number of assisted POS terminals sit unused while customers wait in lines to be checked out. The customer's extended wait time can negatively affect their shopping experience and reduce the stores return on investment for the terminals. Both the assisted and self-service POS terminals may typically use a bi-optic style optical code scanner that is designed to be operated from only one side. Therefore, any attempt to operate such an assisted POS terminal as a self-service POS terminal would not work without physically rotating the optical code scanner. This adds cost, complexity and requires additional training for the personnel.